


Daughters

by Machancheese



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Explosion, Gen, Human shield
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:47:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23061949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Machancheese/pseuds/Machancheese
Summary: Young college girls are going missing and showing up dead in dumpsters. Malcolm will do anything to get the current victim out alive even if it risks his own life.
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666942
Comments: 7
Kudos: 51





	Daughters

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic for the Human Shield square on my Bad Things Happen Bingo Card. I hope you enjoy!

"We can't let this asshole kill another kid!" JT slammed his hands down on the conference room table, causing Malcolm to flinch, startled by the interrupted silence.

Everyone had been deep in files and not speaking a word, trying to concentrate on finding anything they could to lead them in the right direction. The team was currently working on a case with a killer going after young college kids. Two bodies had been found so far. Both of them were female and were good students at New York University, but other than that, they had nothing in common. Hailee, the first body to be found, was studying to become a teacher, while Brooklyn, the second victim, was going to college to become a biologist. Neither of them had any classes together and there was no evidence that either of them had ever even ran into each other at the large school.

Both victims had been found in different dumpsters in Manhattan. They had bruising on their wrists, abdomens, and ankles from where they had both been bound to a chair with rope. The victims were both severely beaten with no signs of sexual assault. Their cause of death was head trauma; when the three days came to an end, the killer would beat on their skulls until they died.

Both girls were labeled as missing three days before they were found, and they were discovered three days apart. Meaning, if the killer was keeping to his pattern, he had already found another victim to beat on. The team was listening for any call of missing girls within the area.

“We know, JT. That’s pretty obvious, but we’re not gonna get anywhere if we get angry.” Dani advised.

“It’s been a day and a half since the last girl was found! That’s a day and a half that this girl has been suffering!” JT growled.

“But that also means we still have a day and a half to find her. We have the security footage from both dumpsters that show the man, and we are now just waiting on the facial recognition we asked for literally under an hour ago.” Gil said, trying to comfort JT.

Malcolm watched his team discuss, staying silent for the first time in a long time. This case, too, was eating him up, and he was frustrated that even once they got the face recognition, there was no promise they would be able to find the girl in time. They didn’t even know who the girl was that they were trying to save, but he could already imagine the family and friends crying over their loss. 

Gil’s phone started to ring and he picked it up. Malcolm watched him intently while he just nodded and said a couple of “thank you”s here and there. Gil hung up.

“A girl was just called in missing. Tatum Harrison, age twenty  
She was last seen by her roommate from NYU forty-two hours ago.” Gil informed them, looking down at his hands.

“I’m going for a walk, message me as you get more info.” Malcolm stated, getting up and grabbing his coat from the back of his chair before walking out the door. 

Malcolm really just needed to get out of that cramped room for a bit, but five minutes into his walk, he decided he could be spending that time more wisely so the next taxi he saw he waved over. 

“Where to?” The taxi driver asked as Malcolm got in.

“New York University please.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Malcolm arrived at the university, he had received a text from JT. They now knew Tatum was an English major, her dorm room is B40, she grew up in North Dakota, and that she and Hailee were taking the same creative writing class. The facial recognition also came in: the killer they were looking for was Steve Maxwell. He was currently the head janitor at the school. His wife died a few weeks ago and he had a 15 year old daughter. The team was tracking him down right now while Malcolm volunteered to go talk to the roommate and other faculty to get more info on the victims and Steve.

Malcolm headed to Tatum’s dorm room first. On the way there, he walked past a facility closet right as a man just happened to be leaving. Malcolm immediately recognized him from the security footage he had watched several times. Malcolm started to approach him faster and Steve quickly reentered the room, trying to lock it behind him, but Malcolm caught the door in time.

As Malcolm yanked the door open his eye first caught sight of the girl tied to a chair in the center of the room.

Tatum.

When Steve had given up on trying to lock the door, he went straight to his captive and put a gun to her head. Malcolm slowly entered the room with his hands up.

“Steve put the gun down.” Malcolm instructed.

Steve swung the gun so it was now pointed at Malcolm.

“Who are you?” Steve questioned.

“I’m Malcolm Bright. I’m a consultant for the NYPD, I can help you.” Malcolm answered.

“I DON’T NEED HELP!” Steve shouted.

“What is the point of all of this, Steve? You have a daughter. How can you kill these girls knowing you are killing someone else’s daughter?” 

“I’M DOING THIS FOR MY DAUGHTER!” Steve yelled, approaching Malcom’s right side, making Malcolm move to the left, going further into the room.

“You really think that your daughter would want you to kill these girls?”Malcolm questioned.

“W-When my w-w-wife died, I got angry a-and I couldn’t control myself, b-b-but I promised myself that I would never hurt m-my little gir--” His voice cracked with tears, pushing Malcolm even further into the room. Malcolm was close enough to Tatum that he could reach out and touch her.

“So you started taking it out on the girls here.” Malcolm profiled, taking his eyes off of Steve to observe Tatum. Her long brown hair was a tangled mess in the bandana tied around her head as a gag. She had streams of makeup running down her face from hours of crying, and bruises scattered around her face with a few cuts here and there. She was in a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top, her arms and legs also covered in bruises. 

When he looked back up Steve had a makeshift bomb in one hand with red numbers screaming 1:00, and his other hand on the door knob.

“Steve…” Malcolm warned.

Within seconds, Steve had pushed a button on the bomb - the numbers immediately starting to count down - threw it across the room, and ran out the door, leaving Malcolm with a ticking bomb and a tied up girl in a college dorm. 

Malcolm pulled out his phone, dialing Gil’s number, starting to untie the knots while waiting for Gil to pick up. As soon as it stopped ringing Malcolm spoke.

“Gil evacuate the college and, uh Steve is on the uh, run.” Malcolm hung up before Gil could reply. He slipped his phone back in his pocket before putting his full focus on Tatum who was now sobbing uncontrollably.

Malcolm had gotten her ankles and abdomen untied, with 20 seconds left to get her arms untied.

“This is gonna be a close one.” Malcolm noted quickly, releasing the girls arms, and scooping her up against his chest, he turned and ran towards the door. Struggling with the door knob, Malcolm opened the door and stepped through right as the air around him forced him forward. He wrapped his arms tightly around the sobbing girl, protecting her head and let the explosion engulf him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tatum awoke, feeling a heavy weight on her body and her ears ringing. She tore open her burning, teary eyes to see a person on top of her. She panicked, pushing the body off of her and scooting away from it through the debris around her. 

The second she saw the man's bloody, dirty, unconscious face, everything came back to her memory. Waking up early and heading to her friend’s dorm to borrow a shirt, being smacked on the back of the head, waking up tied to a chair, a man endlessly beating her, another man - Malcolm Bright - coming into the room, him untying her, holding her close to his body, the smell of his cologne, the bomb. 

Ears still ringing and body sore, Tatum crawled back over.

“Malcolm?” Tatum nudged him, her own voice sounding muffled when it came out.

“Mr. Bright… sir, please d-don’t leave me here alone.” She sobbed, pulling Malcolm’s torso up onto her lap starting to rock back and forth, looking around at the rubble that now surrounded them.

“I’m so s-s-scared.” Tatum whimpered. She could hear faint sirens and shouting now, but with the adrenaline fading and the days of exhaustion catching up, she couldn’t find the energy to stand up or even call for help. Everything was hurting and she didn’t know if she could even take another breath. How did she get here? Stuff like this doesn’t just happen to people.  
  
Faintly, Tatum heard someone call out, “WE GOT TWO PEOPLE OVER HERE” and a hand on her shoulder pulled her from her thoughts. Her head snapped around, panicked eyes looking at the firefighter in front of her. His lips were moving, but she couldn't hear what was coming out. She just looked back down to Malcolm, shutting out the world around her. It was all too much, this man saved her life and here he was most likely dead because of her.

The next thing she knew there were hands on Malcolm, putting a collar on him and gently taking him from her lap and onto a spinal board. She wanted to stop him from leaving, but she couldn’t. Shock had overcome her, and she was frozen. She didn’t move until they tried to put a collar on her neck and the contact felt as if a captor was trying to choke her, just like Steve had tried to do several times. Panicking, she lashed out, swinging her arms at anything within reach.

“She’s hurting herself, we are going to need to sedate her.” She thrashed harder the second she heard those words. She wasn’t ready to go to sleep, she needed to know what was going on, she needed to make sure Malcolm would be ok. 

Tatum felt a pinch in her thigh, pausing her panic. She looked down to find a blue gloved hand pulling a syringe out of her leg and starting to rub the spot where they had injected the mystery solution. She went to object, but found both her arms restrained by some firemen, and the little bit of energy she had from before vanished. 

Everything suddenly became very heavy, her eyelids becoming impossible to keep open, so she let them close, her body gave out, and the darkness took her over.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tatum was surrounded in silence and darkness, but then she wasn’t. She was opening her eyes to bright white lights and the sound of conversations. She quickly closed them again, not ready to see the world and give away the fact that she was awake. She waited a second, giving herself time to adjust and listen to the conversation going on in the room. There were three people talking, two men and a woman.

“So what is the word on Bright?” one man asked

“Luckily they don’t have to put him in a coma, but he is gonna be out and drugged up for a bit. He has quite a few bad burns, and some rough cuts from debris, the most concerning thing is his concussion. Overall, he is gonna be in a lot of pain if he isn’t asleep or on painkillers.” an older sounding man informed the other two.

“And what about her?” the woman asked.

“She came out pretty unharmed from the explosion. She has a lot of bruises from her assault, but other than that she has a few cuts and burns here and there. Bright must have blocked her from most of it. Luckily, the bomb that was used was a mild explosive so they didn’t end up getting incinerated. I need to go call Jessica. You two go get started on the paperwork.” The older man instructed.

Tatum knew she didn’t want to be left alone to figure out what was going on, so before any of them could leave, she opened her eyes again, squinting against the bright light and let out a fake groan, grabbing the people's attention. She slowly sat up, actually groaning when her body screamed in objection to the movement.

“Tatum Harrison, I am Lieutenant Gil Arroyo. You are at the hospital. Do you remember what happened?” the old man spoke as he quickly approached.

Tatum nodded.

“Would you like to give your family a call?” The Lieutenant asked, sitting down on the foot of her bed.

“I w-wanna talk t-to Malcolm.” Tatum croaked.

“Sorry, Tatum, but he is still in recovery and at the moment not even awake, but when he is well enough, I can arrange for you to meet with Mr. Bright.” Lieutenant Arroyo apologized. 

“Can I see him?” she pleaded.

“You should rest, call your parents to at least tell them what's going on, and then tomorrow I will bring you to see Bright. Don’t worry, he is alive and well, there is no need to stress.” Gil comforted, patting her knee.

Tatum nodded, not having the energy to fight, she lied back down and slowly rolled over so her back faced the strangers. The Lieutenant taking that as his sign to leave, got up and walked out of the room with the other two not far behind. Tatum let a tear fall down her face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the evening nurses came in and out checking in on Tatum. She had called her parents, they were getting on the next available flight and would be there in the morning. Leaving her to herself for the night. The hospital had gone quiet now, only the occasional patient or nurse walking by. Her doctor had told her she was in good enough condition that she didn’t need to be checked on constantly throughout the night, but if she needed anything, she was to push the red button on the remote resting on her bed.

With the events that had happened that day, she just couldn’t shut off her mind, so sleep wasn’t an option. All she wanted was to see Malcolm and make sure he was ok. She felt so guilty knowing the man was in the hospital because of her. He could have gotten away long before the bomb went off if it wasn't for the fact he had to stay to untie her. 

Tatum decided that, instead of sitting there restless all night, she could at least go get a look at Malcolm and, maybe, that would be enough for her mind to shut off and let her sleep.

She sat up and got out of bed. The nurses had taken her IV out earlier, deciding it was no longer necessary, as long as she took it easy and stayed hydrated.

Tatum headed out of her room. She quickly tiptoed down the hallway in her bare feet and hospital gown and looked in each window. As she passed the fifth window, she saw it had the man she was looking for.

He looked in rougher shape than the Lieutenant had made him sound. Malcolm had angry red burns and cuts lining his face, and one hand was completely wrapped up and the other had an IV in it. He also had a nasal cannula giving him extra oxygen. She couldn't see the rest of the damage because of the hoodie he was wearing and the blanket covering the rest of him, but she hoped it wasn't too bad.

Tatum was just about to leave when she noticed his head started turning side to side, and he was saying something, but his eyes were still closed. 

Worried, she cracked open his door and slipped in. He was moaning “no” and “stop” over and over again. Tatum stepped forward further into the room.

“Mr Bright?” she whispered. “Are you ok Mr. Bright, should I call in a nurse?” she wearily asked, approaching the side of his bed and gently shaking his shoulder.

Malcolm snapped up, eyes wide open, startling Tatum.

“Sir?” She stepped back, giving him space.

He was breathing heavily and was looking around the room like he was scared.

“Malcolm y-you are in the hospital, everything is ok, I can go get a nurse if you want.” She attempted to comfort him.

Malcolm’s eyes flew over to Tatum, the fear gradually leaving them. Tatum slowly turned to leave, but stopped when Malcolm gripped her arm.

“N-n-no, I’m fine, I d-don’t need a nurse. It was just a nightmare.” He said, releasing her arm and lying back down, groaning in pain.

“I-I just came to say th-thank you for saving my life.” Tatum shyly said, looking down at her hands.

“Don’t worry about it, it's my job. And let's just say this isn’t the first time I’ve been that close to an explosion.” he weakly chuckled.

“Come sit down, you must be exhausted.” He pointed to the chair by his bedside.

She sat down, still looking down at her hands that were now picking at the gown. 

“You're lucky you have a hoodie. These things are uncomfortable as shit.” Tatum quietly said with a smirk.

“Yeah um, my team knew sleeping is already uncomfortable enough for me, so when the came they brought me a hoodie and some sweats.” Malcolm told her.

“My parents' plane is landing tomorrow morning. I pray to god they bring me some stuff. I was bored out of my mind sitting in my room.” Tatum commented.

“I get it, I’m not a fan of hospitals either. The only reason I’m still here is my concussion is bad enough I have to have people constantly checking to make sure I don’t go into a coma or something.” He laughed.

“So why don’t you tell me about this other explosion you mentioned.”Tatum said looking at him with a smile.

"Well you see it all started with my mother bringing me this really expensive white suit." Malcolm started.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank You for reading! Feel free to leave a kudo and or a comment! As always a big thanks to my beta [hellbent_panda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellbent_panda/pseuds/hellbent_panda)


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